Travel Blogs from Napier, New Zealand

After a long, windy and very dusty drive we reached Lake Waikaremoana. This has to be one of the more remote areas of the North Island, but the stunning scenery was well worth the journey. We packed the camping gear and set off on a four day tramp around ...

... !) we drive along the sea front next to the grey volcanic beach. We make the brilliant choice to go into the national aquarium of NewZealand. There are plenty of fish in here, but the highlight is definitely our first sight of a kiwi, which we wait for ...

... little peckish and the breeze was getting up a bit and so we stopped for lunch. We had driven through Napier, the art deco town of NewZealand and briefly enjoyed its colour before continuing down the coast. Even slight detours weren't bothering me as ...

... positive things to say about it and recommended a cool hostel to stay in.
I'm looking forward to settling down now. I have been in NewZealand almost a month now and I have already nearly completed a round trip of the North Island! I am glad that I ...

... or cold in the car.
So plans were put on hold for the wineries, and we went off to Cape Kidnappers instead - a place outside of Napier where loads of gannets live. We didn't get to walk all the way up to there because of the low tide, so just chilled ...

... of New Zealands famous breweries, Tui. We had a nice lunch stop here and came across the best deal we have found so far in NewZealand. 3 delicious beers for 2$. So needless to say a few of us were 6 deep by the time we left after an hour and that ...

... Napier.
We had all thoroughly enjoyed the tramp around Lake Waikaremoana. There was no question about why this was one of the Great NewZealand Walks. Now that we had been hiking for three and a half days, our packs felt pretty light on our backs, ...

After Napier was destroyed in an eathqake, the locals embraced art deco to create NewZealand's art deco city. Putting aside images of New York's deco skyscrapers, Napier is a pretty town with some beautifully painted buildings, including a very ...

... we just missed the party. Napier has an Art Deco trust which also hosts guided walks on an Art Deco trail through Napier. Centurion Backpackers, our accommodation while in Napier, was previously the Centurion Hotel and is one of the buildings on the Art ...

... , the hills eased up, and we started to make more progress after our first stop. We saw that there were two routes into Napier and took the one which followed a railway line, assuming it would be flatter. As usual when facing a long day, Mikey organised ...

... the north island that I'd missed, I hired a car with a friend, and set off to tick those other boxes.
First stop was Napier, on the east coast, a town famous for its incredible art deco architecture. The entire city was razed to the ground in 1931 as ...

Alex: We had heard good things about Napier from a few people so we decided to stop here to break up the journey between Rotorua and Wellington. The town was reduced to rubble in the 30's after an earthquake so the city was rebuilt with earthquake ...

Well we have 4 days to go and there has been a lot of packing today.
We are busy researching Motorhomes to buy in Vancouver and studying the travel guides to decide where we will travel first - is it skiiing or head south for warmer weather??
...

... it the Art Deco capital of the world and it has maintained its look until this day. Graeme also took us around a side of Napier tourists certainly don't get to see. His son is a boat builder and it was absolutely brilliant to check out the ...

... hectares of waterfront. Back in the car it's stinking hot, so we duck into the new National Aquarium of NewZealand, a wonderfully designed (and air-conditioned) piece of architecture.
Re-emerging at 4pm, it's still damn hot, but we decide to continue ...

We decided at the last minute to go to Napier, because we had heard about the Summer Solstice Festival to be held on 18th June, and with free entry we were sold. However, once again the weather conspired against us. It was fine when we left Wellington but ...

... and we spent much of the early evening circling around looking for any kind of dimly lit hovel with a vacancy sign.
Napier's colourfully rendered township partners a promenade which stretches for miles along the sea front, and as we hummed along on ...

Emma finally gets her horse-fix on a sheep and cattle station near the coast. Our valiant effort to reach Napier yesterday ended here last night, 30km north of the city. Despite arriving late and unannounced, the owner rustled up a guide for us, so this ...

Whatz up people!!!! i am soooooooo excited i mean would you be? one more day of school then the weekend and on sunday we are outta here!!!!
my room is all packed up and ready to go-just my bag and things im taking are in a heap on the floor:]
im not ...

... , but everyone I met back in Taupo said it was really nice and worth a stop, so I jumped on the InterCity yesterday to have a look.
Napier is on the east coast of the North Island, on the ocean, and it's a town of about 60,000 people or so. What is ...

It took such a long time to put this trip together. In the 12 months between losing my full-time job and retirement at the age of 65, I did what I could to reduce my living costs to enable me to survive on first the unemployment benefit and ...

... lunch at one of their cafes (tastier than McDonalds). It was a nice touch flying that last 11 hour leg with Air NewZealand who's stewardesses were more mature and friendlier than the dollybirds on some of the other airlines I've flown with. Arriving in ...

... – some more natural hot pools before heading on to Gisbourne. Gisbourne seemed to be the same as every other NewZealand town. They’re not particularly pretty, a main street of shops with covered walkways but the ...

We arrived in Napier at lunchtime from Taupo. Its an area known for its nice walks but with the weather closing in we quickly saw that there isn't much to do there in bad weather in the Winter. We didnt mind as we were only using the area as a stop over ...

We arrived in Napier in the early afternoon. Due to an earthquake in the 1930s this city had to be rebuilt and is now referred to as "The Art Deco capital of the world".
Not much to report on here, it was just an overnight stop before heading towards ...